WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640 If you're serious about pushing your computer's performance while keeping it as cool as possible, 00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:10.880 the long-standing advice has been to opt for water cooling rather than rely on air cooling. 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:15.680 And generally speaking, there's something to this advice. Unless you're comparing a basic, 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:20.320 all-in-one water cooler with a really beefy, high-end air cooler, 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:25.760 putting your CPU or your graphics card for that matter under liquid should yield better results. 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:32.000 But have you ever wondered why this is the case? I mean, what's so special about plain old water? 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:37.840 As it turns out, quite a lot. Every substance has an intrinsic property called heat capacity, 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:43.600 and simply put, this is how much thermal energy it can absorb before it changes temperature. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:51.120 Turns out that water has a higher heat capacity than most other common substances. Think about it 00:00:52.080 --> 00:00:57.120 You've got a large swimming pool that's getting beat on by the sun during a scorching hot day, 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:02.320 and yet you jump in and it's still shockingly cold, even in the late afternoon. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:07.120 This is because of hydrogen bonding at the molecular level. The oxygen atom in a 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:12.320 water molecule is quite electronegative, meaning that it attracts electrons, 00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:16.720 which gives it more of a negative charge than the two attached hydrogen atoms. 00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:22.720 So this means that the more positively charged hydrogen atoms of the surrounding water molecules 00:01:22.720 --> 00:01:28.240 will stick to the oxygen atoms and prevent the molecules from moving around too much 00:01:28.240 --> 00:01:34.320 when heat is applied. And since higher temperatures are a result of more molecular motion, 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:39.760 all of this means that water can resist temperature changes better than the metals 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:45.040 that are commonly used in air coolers. So coming back to what this means for your PC, 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:50.800 strapping a water block to your CPU or your GPU means that your chips will be spitting out heat 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:56.960 into a substance that can hold much more heat than an aluminum heat sink with a fan attached to it. 00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:01.120 But that's not even the whole story. There's also the fact that there's a practical limit 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:08.240 to how much heat sink you can strap onto a CPU socket before it becomes too large and too heavy. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:14.400 So another way that water coolers achieve better performance is by having very large radiators 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:17.840 to dissipate the heat that's been absorbed by the water, 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:23.280 further improving overall cooling capacity. Furthermore, because pumping water from the 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:29.680 CPU to another part of the system is so fast and efficient, many water cooling systems are designed 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:36.000 to take the warm water away where it can get easy access to fresh and cool air. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.080 Other people prefer to mount their fans in such a way that they'll blow the waste heat right out 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:44.720 of the case, ensuring that the hot air from their CPU isn't affecting their other components. 00:02:44.720 --> 00:02:48.560 Even aside from raw performance though, water coolers do have other advantages. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.320 Because water cools more efficiently than a metal heat sink alone, 00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:57.760 water coolers are generally quieter because the attached fans don't have to work as hard to 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:04.000 dissipate heat. And compared to a beefy tower style air cooler, they also take up less space, 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.240 put less torque on your motherboard, eliminate worries about your CPU cooler conflicting with 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:13.120 being able to install your RAM, and are generally more aesthetically pleasing if you want a clean 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:18.000 looking build. However, despite liquid cooling's many advantages, there are some things you should 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:22.800 be wary of before you rush out and buy a water cooler. Although springing a leak in a well 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:28.960 designed loop is rare, it can happen. And while some coolers are filled with distilled water or 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:35.280 other non-conductive fluids, even these substances are liable to pick up ions from the metals inside 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:40.240 the cooler and become conductive over time. So you'll want to make sure that whatever brand you 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:46.400 buy from has a reputation for covering the cost of other damaged components if the worst happens. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:52.400 Additionally, don't feel compelled to spend extra money on a water cooler if you aren't overclocking. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:58.560 Although you can still reap the benefits of better aesthetics and reduced noise, 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.960 though it should be noted that very high-end air coolers actually can run quieter than water 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:08.560 coolers because they don't require pumps, the more you know. Your CPU is going to function just fine 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:14.160 at stock speeds with the cooler that comes in the box or, worst case scenario, a modest 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:20.400 aftermarket air cooler because long gone are the days when your typical beige box system 00:04:20.400 --> 00:04:24.960 sounds like a jet engine when it's being put through its paces. So thanks for watching guys, 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:32.560 like and subscribe, and bye. By what? By a shirt, lttstore.com.